Many solar pool heaters use one or more solar collectors (e.g., solar panels) installed on a nearby roof or rack to collect solar energy and heat up the pool water which is fed to the collector via one or more feed lines. The return lines from the solar collectors may return the heated water back to the pool. The pool water may be pumped to the solar panels via electric pumps. Although the current solar pool heating systems may serve their own purpose, they are faced with a number of disadvantages and shortcomings. For many pool owners, for example, the total cost of the system (e.g., the cost of solar panels and other materials and installation fee) may a prohibitive factor. Some pool owners may not be happy with the aesthetic aspects such as the change in the look of their roofs and buildings due to installation of solar collectors and the associated feed and return-line tubes. Others may find the noise of the pumps bothersome.
An important shortcoming of the current solar pool heating systems, however, may be the low efficiency of the system that may arise from heat losses, for example, in the return line that in some cases may be quite long, and the energy consumption of the one or more pumps in the feed lines of the solar collectors. There is a need for a low cost modular high efficiency solar pool heater that can alleviate most of the disadvantages of the existing solar pool heating systems.